The ever-expanding desire for instant and ubiquitous communications is recognized by major technology companies such as Qualcomm, Intel, AT&T and many more giving rise to the Internet of Things (IoT) concept. All electrical equipment will be intra connected and inter connected to the World-Wide Internet Web network by Ethernet. Home appliances, from refrigerators to the family swimming pool, will get “smarter,” improve function, safety and deliver lower maintenance costs. Smart homes, smart cars, smart boats, smart power grids and smart cities are transitioning to internet communications between any device powered by electricity. Powerline Communications enabling IoT via AC power mains is well established under the HomePlug standard. Sun Digital Systems Powerline Communications (“SDSPLC”) will make that transition possible in mobile systems utilizing lower voltage power distribution wiring. The communication signal and electrical power are delivered on the same wire pair.
The demand for all types of information including text, audio, video and high-speed/low-speed data streams has increased dramatically. The number of users of this data at multiple locations has expanded just as rapidly. The need to improve high data rate delivery and reliability of information exchange to a large and growing number of locations or nodes within a vehicle, vessel, aircraft or a fixed land-based system operating on lower voltages has surpassed present technologies ability to fulfill these needs. SDS Inc Powerline Communications delivers Ethernet information transmission over common power wiring now used to distribute lower voltage, high current electrical energy such a 12 Volts throughout a system. This application present special problems solved by SDSPLC technology. There is no need to add communication wiring. SDSPLC developed unique circuits to achieve cost effective impedance isolation between the power source(s) or power load(s) and the communication interface enables deliver of high-speed Ethernet data. SDSPLC impedance conditioning makes high current, low impedance equipment wiring compatible with high performance Powerline Communications technology.
Impedance isolation enables SDS Powerline Communications products to provide the lowest cost, highest data rate, energy efficient bidirectional, transparent, impedance modulation tolerant conducted communications system meeting the needs of modern lower voltage systems. SDSPLC uses the same data format and is compatible with radiated communications or wireless schemes such as Wi-Fi. Radiated and SDSPLC conducted communication complement each other and may coexist in the same system forming a high reliability redundant Ethernet communications network with no network management overhead. Information is highly available anywhere and everywhere by using both wired and wireless communication methods. As part of a hybrid network, SDSPLC enabled equipment support wired devices while freeing up wireless bandwidth for mobile devices not permanently connected to power distribution wiring. This improves radiate data bandwidth available to equipment that can only access information via the wireless network. In many cases conducted communications is more reliable than wireless communications because impairments are easier to manage than atmospheric and radio interference.
SDSPLC utilizes conducted communication technology to modulate plain, low cost, lower voltage power wiring to deliver Ethernet data to multiple locations throughout a mobile or fixed base system. When appropriate impedance isolated Powerline Communications, SDSPLC may be powered by a lower voltage power source like solar energy with local battery storage backup for continuous operation regardless of the time of day or utility power grid status. Two nodes consume less than 4 watts at full 100 to 250 Mbps data rate. Only one node transmits at a time per IEEE802.3 protocol so a large number of nodes is supported by low power signal energy. Nodes automatically go into sleep mode unless data traffic is present. SDSPLC conserves energy at every data node by operating at low power levels and switching to sleep mode whenever possible and yet reverting back to high speed mode when needed.
SDSPLC inventions fill the need for faster, highly available communications over longer distance without adding the expense of installing special wiring such as Ethernet Category data cable. A simple connection to lower power wiring is all that is required. As the need for multi-point broadband data access expands and the number of networked machine to machine and network to user communications grows. SDSPLC technology delivers high speed, reliable communications over wired networks without Ethernet wire. SDSPLC fills the need for conducted communications without adding any new specialized wiring to an existing wired vehicle, vessel or aircraft. Optionally, highest performance is achieved by adding impedance isolation to the network power source or sources and/or power loads.
SDSPLC technology turns any lower voltage plain wire distribution wiring system into an Ethernet communications network while still delivering electrical power to each node. SDSPLC is a Ethernet Powerline bridge compliant with the IEEE 802.3 standard and delivers a communications channel up to 250 Mbps. This is accomplished over any pair of plain hookup wires. Lower data rate, lower cost implementations are compatible with and operate on the same high speed wired network. All data rate performance presented here are the actual delivered, usable UDP or TCP data rate values in Mbps. The symbol or PHY rates are 2 or more times higher than the delivered data rates presented in this document. PHY data rate has little meaning to the end user so we use real delivered data rate.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.